


You and Me Together (Is More Than Chemistry)

by fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat



Series: The Phantom Chronicles [12]
Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV), The Dark Artifices Series - Cassandra Clare, The Shadowhunter Chronicles - Cassandra Clare
Genre: 5+1 Things, Alex makes a big decision, F/F, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Hypothermia, Kayla and Willie try to explain twilight to everyone else, Luke and Julie are so in love and I think that's beautiful, Luke's nieces have great ideas, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Movie Night, Shadowhunter AU, Ty and Kit make a little cameo, but mainly fluff and just a little angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-15 00:33:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,021
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29427462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat/pseuds/fangirl_in_a_trenchcoat
Summary: "Look at that, our friends are growing up, moving on..." Luke said, looking at Julie with a smile.Julie chuckled and turned to look at him. "It's been four months, I was getting worried.""Four months?" Luke asked confused."Since you last mentioned a marriage proposal," she said.Or: Five times Julie said no plus one time Luke said yes
Relationships: Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex Mercer & Luke Patterson (Julie and The Phantoms), Alex Mercer/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Flynn & Alex Mercer & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie Peters & Carrie Wilson, Flynn/Carrie Wilson, Julie Molina/Luke Patterson, Kayla/Reggie Peters (Julie and The Phantoms)
Series: The Phantom Chronicles [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2079396
Comments: 3
Kudos: 76





	You and Me Together (Is More Than Chemistry)

  
**(1)**

Luke and Julie had been dating for five months and if there was one thing Luke was sure about, it was that he loved this girl with everything he had. They would write songs together and they would sing together and they would go on patrol together and well, the couple that fights demons together, stays together.

And sure, maybe Alex had threatened to somehow seal the music room just so he and Julie could get some more sleep, but it wasn't so much the room as it was the feeling and really, if Luke and Julie wanted to keep the band alive, no one could stop them. Not that Alex and Reggie didn't care, they probably just had some more common sense. Then again it was Julie who had more common sense than all of them combined. It was a weird combination to be honest, Luke was pretty sure he was a bad influence somehow.

Today hadn't been any different. Well, it'd been plenty different because somehow - and they still had no idea about the details, but they would probably learn more tomorrow - Willie had been shot and that was definitely not an every day occurence. Everything had ended up fine in the end and he was currently upstairs asleep with Alex, so the Institute had gone back to its usual rhythms.

Which meant Luke and Julie were in the music room working on a song that was almost finished. The speed with which lyrics seemed to flow out of them was admirable, really. Luke was pretty sure if they'd been mundanes they could have actually somehow made it in the music world.

Julie was going over the melody on the piano while Luke was fleshing out some parts in the lyrics, sitting on the window bench. Was it way too late for them to be doing this? Sure. Was that going to stop them? No.

What was surprising this time though was that his phone suddenly lit up with a text notification. Luke picked it up confused since everyone should have been asleep by now and saw Alex's name.

_Are you awake?_

Luke wasn't really surprised at the text. He wasn't worried either, he knew Alex way too well for that, it was mostly... empathy. He knew he'd definitely be freaking out if something like that happened to Julie - actually, scratch that, he didn't even want to _think_ about something like that happening to Julie - and Alex's fears tended to materialize at night when he was finally calm.

 _It depends, are you going to get mad if I say yes?_ he texted back and sent it.

It didn't take long before his phone started ringing.

"Hello!" Luke answered cheerfully. He was sure he should be feeling more tired than that, but he wasn't going to complain. "There's a song for you to learn," he added.

"How fast do you generate new songs?" Alex asked.

"Sometimes things just happen, Alexander, and you just have to go with it," Luke answered, his tone probably a bit overdramatic, but it was the truth. Julie had so many unfinished melodies to go through and they'd created a lot on their own, plus going over older things Luke had written... It was amazing.

"Okay..." Alex said, a quiet chuckle escaping him that turned into a sigh.

"You're okay?" Luke asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Alex said a bit too quickly for Luke's taste. "It's just been a weird night..." he said with a sigh. "Aren't you tired?"

"Sleep is for the weak," Luke answered with no hesitation and watched Julie shaking her head with a smile over the piano.

"Dude, you should really go spend some time with your girlfriend," Alex said.

"Yeah, sure, okay," Luke said with a laugh and put the phone on speaker. "Jules, Alex thinks I'm neglecting you!" he said a bit louder, looking over at her.

"Hi, Alex," Julie called. "Sleep is overrated," she added, making Luke grin. This was a match made in heaven and no one could tell him otherwise.

"You two are really made for each other," Alex said, voicing his thoughts.

"Thank you!" Luke said, his voice once again a bit overly moved. "This earns you suggenes points you know."

"Luke, I'm not getting married at eighteen," Julie interjected.

"That's not a general no though," Luke pointed out, making her roll her eyes.

"Alex has seniority anyway," she said with a shrug, humoring the conversation.

"I have what now?" Luke heard Alex, but he was too caught up in trying to defend his relationship status.

"For like a month, it doesn't count," he said. If he could turn back time he would have asked Julie out the day she'd stepped foot on the LA Institute. Well, on the beach near the LA Institute, their arrival had been suspenseful to say the least.

"Okay, you have my permission to get married first," Alex said.

"Don't encourage him!" Julie said.

"He doesn't need my encouragement, I'm sure he already knows how he's going to propose," Alex said. And well, that was a lie, but Luke could definitely start planning right at that second.

"I'm going back to my song," Julie said with a resigned sigh, "you can join us if you want to, we really need to start fleshing some of these songs out," she added with a smile making Luke smile too at how considerate she was. Alex didn't hide the fact that he was anxious, but he still didn't feel a hundred percent comfortable to move on to the more intense stuff with Julie and Flynn. 

"You wanna come over?" Luke asked him, taking him off speaker.

"No, I..." Alex started. "It's okay," he said. 

"You want me to come over?" Luke asked instead, ready to do so if Alex just so much as asked.

"It's okay, Luke, really. I just needed to hear someone talk. I'm exhausted anyway, I'm gonna go back to sleep."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes and you should too. It's almost 5."

"Oh come on..." Luke said with a small whine even though Alex probably had a point.

"I'm seriously concerned about you two, don't come at me for worrying about your well-being."

"That's like, emotional blackmail," Luke said with a pout even though Alex couldn't see him.

"No, that's me caring about you," Alex said, "please sleep."

"Fine..." Luke said grumpily, knowing they were going to spend a few more minutes there before eventually going to sleep. "Also, you know you don't have to check that I'm awake before you call, right?" Luke added knowing full well that Alex knew as much, just like he knew how he sometimes didn't want to burden everyone else with his problems out of the blue. 

Alex hesitated, but eventually agreed. "Yeah... yeah, I know."

"Also you know, Reggie and I are not going to let you go to jail alone," he added making Alex snort. 

"Goodnight, Luke," Alex said.

"Okay, fine, you convinced me, we'll go to sleep," Luke said. "Goodnight," he added and hung up. 

He got up, moving over to the piano and sitting down beside Julie. She was going over the bridge, humming the melody under her breath. Luke could almost see her singing the song, blowing everyone's minds away. She just had the power to do that.

"Is he okay?" she asked, turning to look at him as the melody came to an end.

"Well, it's been a weird day..." Luke said. "He'll be okay," he added, knowing that whether it was him, or Reggie, or Carrie, or Willie, Alex had someone to lean on. He was definitely not alone.

"He's right though, we should go to sleep, this is not healthy even by Shadowhunter standards," she said with a sigh, looking at the piano wistfully.

"You don't wanna go to sleep?" Luke said with a smile, looking at her.

"No..." Julie said, falling against him. Luke wrapped his arms around her with a chuckle. "We're so close to completely finishing this song," she murmured against his chest. "If you think you can keep yourself from proposing, I think we can wrap it up in the next twenty minutes."

"We don't have to get married right now," he defended, partialy serious, partialy joking.

"So that's a no, I see," she said.

"All I know, is that I'm not hearing a no from you," he said with a smirk.

Julie raised her head to look at him. She leaned in and kissed him slowly, her hands finding their way around his neck. She pulled back, looking at him with a small smile. "No," she said.

Luke pouted, making her chuckle. She leaned in once more and pecked his lips. "Not now," she said this time.

"I think I can live that," he said after a couple of seconds.

"Thank the Angel," she said, still smiling and turned back to the piano. "Come on, let's try this once."

Luke smiled back and grabbed his guitar from where it was resting against the piano. Julie didn't waste any time getting into the intro, her voice echoing around the room.

_"Running from the past_   
_Tripping on the now  
What is lost can be found, it's obvious..."_

**(2)**

Luke had been the first one to notice the demons only a couple of seconds before Julie had. He'd jumped into the fight without a second thought, going after the creature. He didn't usually have an exact plan mapped out when slicing demons, he mostly made it up as he went on. He didn't consider himself careless, not when there was a task at hand. It was true, his attention span was sometimes short and he'd prefer to focus on music rather than anything else at any given minute, but he didn't write off being a Shadowhunter completely.

He loved the Shadow World, loved his friends and family, loved having the Sight and being part of something bigger. He could probably do without the demons, but he couldn't just expect only the cool things to be true, could he? And he'd been training just as long as everyone had, he knew what he was doing even if it didn't seem like it sometimes. He had the same weapons and combat training as everyone else and he could take out a few demons at any given minute. Just because he liked focusing on other things it didn't mean he didn't care.

So yes, he didn't have a plan on how to go about it, but that made it easier for him to adapt to any situation. He just let his instincts take over and followed the others around him if they had an idea.

And it wasn't even that many demons. What was it, three? Four? It was fine, he needed the practice, needed to get back into it after spending three weeks in bed the previous month. Apparently walking around as a ghost and almost dying took a lot out of a person.

He killed one of them and heard Julie's whip behind him lashing through the air. It wasn't until a few seconds later that he realized, no, there were five. The last one moved towards Julie who was only now turning around so Luke naturally ran towards her to intercept the hit. 

Unfortunately, he didn't also have the time to retaliate so instead he was thrown against one of the walls on the other side of the alley they were in. He fell on the ground with a groan, although still in one piece so that was good. He turned his head around just in time to see the demon bursting into flames, Julie coming up behind it and running over to Luke just as he sat up.

"Are you okay?" she asked, her eyes frantic as she looked him over.

"Yeah, fine," he said, rolling his shoulders around to get rid of the soreness.

"What the hell was that?" she asked, making Luke do a double take and look at her confused. She didn't sound worried anymore, just... angry?

"What do you mean?" he asked, getting up as she did.

"You were fine and then you jumped right in front of it!" she said, raising her voice in the end.

"You're angry?" he asked again, trying to figure out what was happening. It wasn't like he hadn't seen Julie get angry before - not at him, but still - but there was always a clear reason why. This didn't really make any sense.

"Yes!" she shouted. "You need to start thinking before you act!"

"Julie, it was right about to attack you, you hadn't even seen it!"

"Then let it! I would have handled it!"

"Okay, help me understand here," Luke said, rubbing a hand over his forehead, "what is happening? Why are you anrgy at me?"

"Because if you spent half the time you spend protecting me looking after yourself, we wouldn't even have this problem! You literally just used your body as a human shield!"

"Yes and I'd do it again! Am I supposed to just let you get hit?" Luke raised his voice as well. He didn't like any part of that conversation.

"You are not supposed to let yourself get hurt! Really, Luke, you can't be reckless in the field!"

"Reckless? Julie, I know I'm not a model Shadowhunter and I know music gets in my head too much sometimes, but I know what I'm doing out here."

"Music isn't everything!" she said her voice still firm.

And no. No, Luke must be understanding something wrong because this didn't make sense coming from Julie, it couldn't. Not Julie who sang with him and wrote with him. Julie who was in a freaking band with him. Her words weren't even that harsh but they cut Luke deeper than he'd expected. Because Luke had explained to her what music meant to him from the moment they'd met and she'd understood the passion he had for it and the difficulty he had trying to balance everything. And he also knew what music meant to her and how they'd come together and made this work despite everything. Because this wasn't one of the people who'd told him his dreams were stupid or unattainable. So yes, he must be understanding something wrong here.

They looked at each other, Luke really not knowing what to say. Julie looked like she'd said all she had to say.

"You know, I'm not really in the mood for a movie tonight, I'm gonna go back to the Institute," she said.

Luke watched her bring her whip back, wrapping it around her wrist and walking away with one last glance.

He was sure he stayed glued on his spot for at least a couple of minutes before he turned around and walked to Willie's apartment. He wasn't even one hundred percent sure about how he'd gotten there, he felt kind of numb. He went up the stairs, stopping in front of Willie's door just as it opened and he came face to face with Reggie who greeted him with a cheerful smile as always.

"Hello!" he said, waiting for Luke to come in. He didn't. Reggie looked at him confused, only then registering his crumbling expression. "Luke? What happened? Where's Julie?"

And in the end that was what broke him. He surged forward and wrapped his arms around Reggie, burrying his face in his shoulder as his eyes teared up.

"Woah, hey, what happened?" Reggie asked, immediately hugging him back. He suddenly felt his shoulders tense. "Where's Julie?" 

Luke realized what must have been going through his head. "In the Institute," he murmured against his shoulder.

Some of the tension left Reggie, although that understandably made him more confused. "What's wrong then?" he asked.

"Who was it?" Alex called as he came in from the kitchen. "What happened?" he stopped when he saw them, Luke knowing that his mind was already running a mile a minute.

"I don't know!" Luke said as he pulled back from Reggie and walked in the living room, face planting into the couch. He heard shuffling behind him and turned his head to the side to see Alex and Reggie sitting in front of him on the floor. "Julie and I got into a fight."

"A fight?" Reggie repeated surprised.

"Do you two even know how to fight?" Alex said.

"Apparently yes," Luke said.

"A fight about what?" Reggie asked.

"I don't know!" Luke said again exasperated and sat up. "It wasn't- It didn't even make sense! She said-" Well, he didn't want to go over what she'd said. Not before he could understand why. God, he hated this. He hated every second that went by. "There were a few demons, but we took care of it. And then she was suddenly overreacting."

"About what?" Alex asked.

"The fact that I jumped in front of her and got hit instead? She wasn't even looking, it could have been much worse and like, what am I supposed to do anyway? Leave her on her own?" Luke started talking. "I've been hit way worse than this, I didn't even get a scratch!"

"Maybe she was just worried," Reggie tried to reason with him.

"I can understand worried, I really can, but she was angry and I don't get it- help me get it," he pleaded with them.

"Hey, Luk- what did I miss?" Willie came in, realizing the guys didn't have their usual happy casual atittude. Actually Luke just wanted to go cry a little alone for a while if that was alright with everyone.

"Luke jumped in front of a demon to save Julie, got hit and then got into a fight with her," Alex said.

"I'm sorry," Willie said, sitting on the floor with his back on the armchair next to the couch, wrapping an arm around Alex's waist. "I mean I one hundred percent get it, but it still sucks."

Luke's head snapped at him. "What do you get?" he asked desperate.

"I..." Willie trailed off as he stared at the three of them looking up at him confused. "Guys, you- you do get that you had an after death experience a month ago, right? How you were almost kind of... dead?" His arm tightened around Alex at that last part.

Luke looked at him for a second, trying to piece everything together. "But," he started, "we're fine."

"Yeah, now you are," Willie said, "you've been back in the field for what? A week? A week and a half? Julie was running around with your _ghosts_ for a day."

And sure Luke remembered what had happened - well, the ghost part was a bit hazy, but it was there - and if he was being honest he'd just been ready to die at that last second when the rune didn't seem to work as it was supposed to. But then he'd woken up and someone was saying something about Julie's hair and then life was okay again. Or so he'd thought.

"Fuck," he heard Reggie mutter from his other side.

"What?" he asked quickly.

"You weren't actually... conscious? for the first part," he said.

"What first part?" Luke asked.

"The waiting part," Alex said as he leaned into Willie, "when you're told everything's fine, but it's not really fine because when only two out of three are awake and talking, you start thinking that something has gone very very wrong..." 

There was something gripping at Luke, making him nervous. "You never told me that."

"There was no point," Alex said.

"You remember that night you first woke up?" Reggie asked. 

"Kind of..." Luke said. It had only been for a few minutes and everything was blurry really, but he remembered waking up and falling back asleep with Julie.

"Julie had come in crying because it'd already been three days and we didn't exactly know what was happening. She thought it was her fault, that maybe she'd done something wrong or she wasn't enough... But then you woke up and we thought everything was good," he said.

"We told her she wasn't making any sense because the room could be on fire and you wouldn't realize it because you'd be staring into each other's eyes," Alex said, "but I guess you never actually got to talk about it."

Luke was staring at all of them, trying to wrap his mind around what they were saying. He knew Julie had been worried about him, about all of them, and for the first few weeks she really wouldn't even let him out of her sight, cuddling with him, holding his hand... Luke was pretty sure having her hand pass through him had startle her more than she'd been letting on. And not that Luke was complaining, for someone who thrived on physical affection being non corporeal had been a nightmare.

God, Julie had never been angry at him at all, had she?

"I need to get back to the Institute," he said about to get up when Alex stopped him.

"No, wait, Luke, it's midnight. Maybe you should give her some time," he said. "You both need some time to calm down. There's no need for this to escalate any further because you're both tired and sad."

"But..." Luke trailed off. He wasn't sure what he wanted to say, but he felt the need to say something, to somehow fix everything.

"You can stay here and go back tomorrow morning," Willie offered.

Luke just gave a defeated sigh and fell back into the couch with his face burried in a pillow. How the hell did they get there?

"You want some food?" he heard Reggie as a hand squeezed his arm. "We ordered pizzas."

"No..." he murmured.

"Well too bad, you're eating some," he then heard Alex and there was more shuffling meaning they'd probably gotten up to go get the pizzas from the kitchen.

Luke just wanted for the rest of the night to pass already so he could go back home.

* * *

Luke was out of Willie's apartment the minute he'd woken up. He didn't know what he was going to say, but there were so many things that needed to be said.

He didn't expect to be so nervous when he went through the Institute's gates. This was Julie, he didn't have anything to be nervous about, they always found their way back to each other.

He opened the front door and walked inside. It was still early, but he could hear noise in the kitchen. He moved over not sure if he wanted it to be Julie or not, but eventually found Flynn and Carrie making breakfast.

"You." Flynn pointed at him with a spatula and Luke expected to be threatened with a knife or something for a second there. "Talk to Julie. Please," she said instead. "She's in her room and she's sad and I hate it when Julie's sad and she hates herself for what she said, but I know you don't hate her so maybe you can talk to each other and fix this."

All Luke could do was nod as he left the kitchen and ran upstairs. He stopped in front of Julie's room and hesitated, but only for a second because Julie hating herself just didn't sit well with him.

He knocked.

"I'm not hungry, Flynn," he heard Julie's voice coming from inside.

Luke opened the door slowly, but didn't walk inside. "Not Flynn," he said. Julie was lying on her bed, but her head snapped at the door when she heard his voice. Luke was prepared for her to tell him to leave, but he was definitely not prepared for her jumping off her bed and crushing him in a hug. His arms instinctively wrapped around her too.

"I'm sorry," she said, coming out muffled by his shoulder. "I'm so sorry for what I said," she repeated with a sniffle.

"Julie," he started without letting her go, "are you okay?"

She pulled back to look at him confused. "I... yeah, I'm fine," she said. "I shouldn't have snapped like that, you were just trying to protect me, isn't that the whole point of going on patrols with a partner?" she added trying to sound casual.

"Jules," he said pushing a curl away from her face, "the guys told me."

"About what?"

"That night? Before I woke up."

Julie tensed. She looked like she wanted to say something, but she didn't know what. Luke took the weight off her shoulders.

"You know how much I love you, right?" he said.

"Of course," she said with no hesitation.

"Well, I also know how much you love me. You kind of brought me back to life," he added with a small smile, making her smile for a couple of seconds too. "I know what happened was difficult, I guess I just hadn't realized how much. You know you can talk to me, right?"

Julie sighed as she fell back against him. "I can't lose you, Luke," she whispered. "I know what we do is dangerous and I trust you, one hundred percent, I know you know what you're doing out there, you're a good Shadowhunter, Luke," she stopped, taking a shaky breath. "But so was my mom. And it didn't end well for her."

Luke wrapped his arms around her tighter. "I'm sorry, Julie. I can't promise that we won't get hurt again, but I'm not leaving you alone. Not if I can help it. I'm staying right here until you get bored of me."

He heard a small chuckle, making him smile. "I can't get bored of you," she said.

"I'm glad because I have many plans for our future," he said.

"Like what?" Julie looked up at him, the tears that had started gathering in her eyes drying out.

"Well, first of all the band goes viral," he started.

"Of course," Julie agreed with a smile.

"And everything's fine and no mundane realizes anything about the Shadow World," he continued, "then we do that thing where we dress in gold and have a party..."

"I think that thing's called a wedding?" Julie said with a raised eyebrow. "You're really gonna wait until after the band goes viral?"

"Well yeah, how long's gonna take? One, two months?" he said making her laugh.

"I told you I'm not getting married at eighteen," she said.

"You'll almost be nineteen by then," Luke offered.

Julie stood on her toes and leaned in to kiss him. "Not yet," she said. Same answer as last time. As long as it wasn't a no, Luke was good. "You know you saved me, right?" she suddenly added.

"What?" Luke asked confused.

"You helped me found my way back to music," she said. "I can never repay you enough for that."

"You don't have to-"

"I know, I know, I just need you to understand music is important to me. If I had to choose between you and that though it's not even a question."

Luke gasped. "Julie, I would never-"

"No, I know. But I need you to know, okay?" she said, looking up at him. "You mean too much to me."

"You mean too much to me too."

Julie nodded. "Good. Okay," she said and leaned back into the hug. "Should we go eat breakfast?"

Luke rested his head on top of hers. "I'm good staying here for a while."

"Yeah, me too."

**(3)**

Luke was doing fine. Okay, maybe telling people that before they had a chance to ask him wasn't the best way to actually prove that he was fine, but really, _he was fine._ So what if it'd been a year ever since Julie came to the Institute? So what if she was going back to New York in a week? Nothing a portal couldn't fix, right? They were lucky enough to have faster ways of transportation, this was going to be absolutely fine.

With that thought he jammed the seraph blade into the demon's torso and watched it burst in flames, some ichor splashing onto his gear. He turned around, finding Alex and Reggie looking at him a bit surprised, but mostly wary.

"You good, man?" Alex asked tentatively.

"Yeah, why?" Luke said nonchalantly. He was fine, did he mention that?

"Uhm, you took five demons out on your own?" Reggie said. "Alex and I collectively worked on one in that time. Not that you're not a good Shadowhunter, but you know, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," Luke said with a shrug. He didn't miss the look the other two shared. "What?" he asked.

"You seem a bit on edge," Alex said.

"Uh, no, everything's cool," Luke said and started walking back down the alley. Alex and Reggie followed.

"So... this has nothing to do with the fact that the girls are leaving next week?" Reggie said, running to catch up with him.

"No," Luke said a bit faster than he was probably supposed to.

"Okay," he heard Alex saying quietly, "you know it doesn't mean anything has to change. The distance isn't great, but we're lucky to be able to get around easier than mundanes, right?"

"Sure," Luke agreed even though he didn't sound as open to the idea. It's not like he thought it was all going to come crushing down - well, there were some dark moments late at night when the thought passed his mind, but he shut those down quickly - but it was still going to be different. And what happened if different didn't work?

And it wasn't just that it was going to be different. Things had been going so good, why did they have to change? Everyone was happy where they were, it's not like it'd be illegal for them to stay. And they'd talked about it, of course they had, but the truth still was that they had to go back. The New York Institute already had a Shadowhunter shortage when the girls had first left, they had to somehow cover the empty spots.

So this was what they were left with. Long distance relationship. It did not sound like fun.

They got back to the Institute and Luke was about to go straight to the music room to look for Julie when Alex grabbed his arm, taking him with him and Reggie. 

"First you change," he said.

"Yeah, thanks, _mom_ ," Luke said, letting himself get dragged.

"I'm gonna let that pass because I love you and you're going through something," Alex said.

"I'm not going through anything," Luke insisted.

"It's okay to be going through something," Reggie said as they went up the stairs.

"I know it's okay, but I'm fine," Luke said.

"When you've said you're fine twenty three times in one day, it probably means you're not totally fine," Alex said. "And that's okay."

"I'm gonna go take a shower," Luke said, detaching himself from Alex. "And when I say I'm fine it means I'm fine," he added as he backed away. Did Alex and Reggie know him well enough to know when he was lying even to - maybe, probably - himself? Well, who was to say?

He cleaned up, washing all the dirt, sweat and ichor away and changed into a t-shirt and sweatpants. After walking around in gear for so long it was really nice to unwind. 

They were lucky today though, they'd gone out early afternoon and come back at only 10:30 pm. One of the few nice days they could just relax for a change. And Julie wasn't even scheduled to go out tonight which made things even better.

He was about to head downstairs to the music room when he heard voices from one of the common rooms down the hall. He walked over and leaned against the doorway, looking at the scene in front of him with a smile.

"Julie, don't move your head!" Liv said, trying to finish a french braid on her left side.

"No, she has to look forward or else it's not gonna come out good," Ellie said from her other side, having worked further down that braid.

"Girls? Up or forward?" Julie asked, from where she sat on the couch, looking at the ceiling, Luke's nieces sitting behind her.

"Up!" Liv said at the same time Ellie said "Forward!"

"Ellie, maybe you should wait until Liv is at the same point you are?" Julie said.

"Fine," Ellie said grumpily, "hurry up, I wanna see how they look."

Liv kept working on the braid until she reached the same point Ellie was at and Julie was finally able to look forward. "By the Angel!" She clutched her chest when she saw Luke. "Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" she said.

"I would never," Luke said with a smile as he came in and sat in front of Julie on the couch.

"Luke, look, we braided Julie's hair!" Liv said excited as they both tied up their respective braids and pushed them over Julie's shoulders.

Luke looked at Julie, his expression softer. She always told him that he had a smile that could lighten up a whole room. He personally believed that was Julie's superpower. "She's beautiful," he said.

Julie smiled at that, blushing slightly. Luke thought it was adorable he could still make her blush after a whole year.

"You have to teach me how to make those," Luke said, turning to the girls.

"Ooh yes," Ellie said, clapping her hands together, "but we're going in Idris with mom for a week so you'll have to wait after we come back. Julie's hair is so pretty."

"Thank you," Julie said with a smile that turned a bit sad in the end, "but, honey, Flynn and I are leaving next week, I won't be here anymore."

And just like that her words hit Luke straight across his face.

"No, you can't leave!" Ellie said, alarmed. "Luke, tell her!" She turned to look at him at the same time with Liv, just as distressed and Luke was suddenly at a loss for words because what was he supposed to say to that?

"It's not up to Luke," Julie said softly as she turned around to look at the girls better, leaning into Luke, one of her hands finding his and intertwining their fingers together. "But I will visit so much," she added, squeezing Luke's hand. Maybe she wasn't trying to console just the girls here.

"There must be a way to fix this! Travel years are so short!" Liv said.

"Yeah..." Luke sighed against Julie's shoulder. Julie leaned her head back a bit, kissing his cheek.

"You can get married!" Ellie shouted with a grin as if she'd solved all their problems.

"Uhm..." Julie started to say, but was cut off by another enthusiastic shout.

"Yes! Then you could stay!" Liv agreed. "You would be our aunt!"

"Girls, it's not that simple-"

"Why not?" Ellie asked. "You love Luke so much and Luke loves you so much and we could be the flower girls!"

"Okay, losing sight of what we're talking about..." Luke said with a chuckle.

"What _are_ we talking about?" Julie asked, her head falling back against Luke's shoulder.

"Your wedding!" Liv said.

"Okay, give me a second before we plan the menu for the reception," Julie said with a chuckle. "Yes, Luke and I love each other, but this is not how we're getting married."

Luke looked at her with a small smile that turned into a smirk. "But we're establishing that we _are_ getting married at some point in the future?" he said.

Julie opened her mouth to answer, but came up with nothing looking in between Luke and the girls. Luke laughed, bringing her closer, wrapping his arms around her tighter. "Hey, shouldn't you two be asleep?" he asked the girls. "Or at the very least getting ready for bed?"

"Uhm..." the girls looked at each other and then back at Luke. "Don't tell mom?" Ellie said.

"I won't if you start getting ready now," he said.

"Fine," Liv said as they climbed off the couch, "but this conversation is not over." She pointed at both of them and Luke had to bite his lip to not laugh.

"Come back to me with venue ideas," Luke called after them as they left the room.

"Good night!" Julie called over him, making him chuckle. "Don't get any ideas," she said.

"I didn't say anything," Luke said, smiling still. "Actually you're the one who said and I quote, _this is not how we're getting married_. You've obviously put some thought on it, I'm flattered..."

"You're already handing Alex and Reggie suggenes points, don't come at me," she said defensively as she turned around to look at him and then added with a smirk, "At least I know Flynn is giving me away."

"Hey, how am I supposed to choose? Because really, if you have any ideas I'm open to suggestions!" Luke said.

"It doesn't matter because we're not actually getting married," Julie said.

"Right, I will have figured it out till then," Luke said with a nod.

Julie looked at him, her nose scrunching up, making her look cute as always. Her face broke into a smile as she moved forward again, sitting on Luke's lap and leaning against him. Luke leaned back with his back on the arm of the couch so that they were lying against each other.

"I'm gonna miss this," he said wih a sigh.

"We're not breaking up, Luke," Julie said, her head on his chest. "I know it's not great, but we will figure it out."

"I know," Luke said, kissing her head. He had no doubt that they would. He just wished things could be different...

**(4)**

The thunder reverbarated all through the Institute. It had suddenly started pouring a few minutes ago, although the whole group was lucky to already be in the Institute anyway. Luke was certainly grateful to not be out in the freezing cold hunting demons in the dark, especially while raining.

What he was not grateful for was Julie being stuck in the Chinese place half an hour away where she’d driven to get everyone's food. She’d said she would give it a few minutes to see if it calmed down and if not she’d start driving back. Maybe he should’ve gone with her so she wouldn’t be alone.

"I hope it gets better until next week," Reggie said quietly from the couch, looking outside and trying to not wake Alex who was asleep with his head on his lap. "It’s Christmas!"

"Reg, we don’t really celebrate Christmas," Luke said amused.

"I know, but it’s still nice. The trees and the decorations and the food! Luke, the food is so great..." he said closing his eyes, probably thinking about Christmas food. Willie had invited them over on Christmas Eve because he found it preposterous that they didn’t actually celebrate Christmas and had promised the whole package - food, presents, weird ugly sweaters that were a thing for some reason... Luke was into it, he wasn’t gonna lie. It was nice to get away from their reality every once in a while.

Another thunder was heard that made Alex stir, but Reggie hurried to pass a hand through his hair softly, calming him down. Alex's breaths evened out again as he remained asleep. It’d been a week ever since the full moon and even though he was okay, he still apparently have not two but three broken ribs that were healing in a steady pace thanks to runes and magic, but were still very much painful. And sure, the iratzes helped, but he hadn’t been sleeping great so he’d take whatever he got.

"Is Kayla coming over too?" Luke asked.

"No, she's going back home for the holidays, but she'll be back a couple of days before New Year's," Reggie said. Reggie and Kayla had gone out on a date the day after the full moon, not really realizing it was a date at the time until Reggie came back to the Institute and Carrie rolled her eyes, leaving the kitchen. Luke wasn't one hundred percent sure where they stood yet, it'd only been a week, but Reggie seemed happy and that was all that mattered.

His phone chimed with a new text and he looked down to see it was from Julie.

 _It's not going to calm down and the food is getting cold, I'm coming back_.

 _Okay, be_ _careful,_ he texted back.

"Okay, I don't know about you, but I have-" Flynn had already started to say as she got into the room when the guys tried to tell her to quiet down, but it was already too late. Luke saw Alex startling awake, blinking his eyes open as he turned to look where the sound was coming from.

"Sorry," Flynn said with an apologetic smile.

"'S okay," he said, bringing his hand up to rub the sleep from his eyes. "It's raining?" he asked almost confused.

"It's pouring," Reggie corrected, "but Julie is bringing food."

"Yay..." Alex said, his voice still hoarse.

"And as I was saying, this whole secret Santa thing, what am I supposed to do about it?" Flynn said, sitting on the other side of the couch.

"Buy a gift?" Luke looked at her confused.

"Yeah, no, I got that, but I don't know what to get-"

"No! You can't tell us who you have!" Reggie cut her off.

"That means she definitely doesn't have Julie," Alex said. "You can start asking everyone randomly what they would want and work from there."

"What would you want?" she asked him.

"I don't know," Alex answered.

"Are you kidding me?" Flynn gave him a deadpan expression.

"I'm not good at making decisions unprepared and half asleep," Alex said, pushing his face against Reggie's leg. "Ask someone else. Also I know for a fact you don't have me, so you're good."

"How do you know?" Reggie looked down at him.

"Julie can't lie to save her life," Alex said. "But I know she'll get me something nice so that's fun."

"Hmm, that's true," Flynn said with a nod. "Does any of you have Julie? Do you want to exchange?"

"No one else says who you have and no exchanges!" Reggie insisted. "This is our first real time celebrating Christmas together-"

"First time celebrating Christmas ever," Luke piped in.

"-and we are doing it right," Reggie finished.

"I thought Willie said that everyone eventually caves in and tells each other who they have," Flynn said with a raised eyebrow just as Carrie came in too and took a seat on the armchair beside the couch.

"Yes, but we are doing this right," Reggie said again. 

"Do we also have to wear the ugly sweaters? I don't get that," Carrie said. "Also I don't have any, my style is impeccable."

"I don't think it has to do with style, it's become a tradition or something," Alex said.

"Weird tradition," Carrie muttered as she fell back on the cushions. "Is Julie on her way with the food? I'm starving."

"Yeah, she said she started," Luke said. "We don't have to cook anything for Christmas, do we? Because that's not gonna go well."

"No, _you_ specifically should not cook anything for Christmas," Alex said moving his head back a bit to get a better look at Luke.

"Well, that's just plain hurtful," Luke said even though it was probably justified.

"Luke, the kitchen was on fire," Reggie said.

"It wasn't even a big fire..."

"I don't think it's the size of the fire that matters here..." Carrie said, the sound of more thunders in the background.

"Why is it freezing in here? Did we leave a window open or something?" Flynn asked, looking around just as a shudder went through her.

"Freezing? The heat is up all the way, you can't actually be cold," Luke said, sitting up straighter on the other armchair. "The windows are fogging up." He pointed behind him.

Flynn looked confused for a second, but she was still obviously shaking. "Yeah... I'm gonna go grab a jacket," she said and got up only to take a shaky step forward and sway before Carrie jumped up and caught her.

"What's wrong?" Carrie asked her, as Alex sat up and both Luke and Reggie leaned forward.

"I-I..." Flynn stuttered, looking confused if anything. "So c-cold."

Carrie helped her sit back down and Alex put his hand over hers. "You don't feel cold," he said.

"Or hot," Carrie added even though she still looked worried. "Nothing has changed."

"It's not-" Flynn took a shaky breath, rubbing her hands together still trying to subconsciously get warm. "It's not me."

It took two seconds for Luke to catch up and scramble for his phone, already calling Julie. Flynn's eyes cleared out while the phone was left unanswered and she was already running out of the room, Luke following her.

"Wait! You can't go out like this!" Reggie called out as he caught up with them.

"Reg-" Luke started to say, but Reggie cut him off.

"Something's going on with Julie. I get it. If you go out wearing a t-shirt and sweatpants you're going to freeze before you can find her," he said trying to reason with him.

There were so many things going through Luke's head, he wasn't even a hundred percent sure he was listening to what Reggie was saying. Julie had gone to get food, she was in a car with heat, wearing a jacket and a coat, how could she be cold? And no, Flynn hadn't just said cold, she'd said it was freezing and if it was strong enough for Flynn to feel it-

"Luke!" 

Luke turned around towards the bottom of the stairs and saw Ty holding the front door open while Kit walked in holding-

"Julie!" Flynn shouted from beside him and was already racing down the stairs, Luke only a second later. 

At first glance Luke had thought she was unconscious, but as soon as he came closer, he noticed her shaking, her face morphed into a frown. She was drenched in water, which would have made sense with the storm outside, but Kit and Ty had also just come in and they seemed to be in a considerable better position than she was.

"We found her by the side of the road," Kit said as Luke held his arms out and took Julie. She immediately leaned into him, subconsciously looking for any source of warmth. Luke almost flinched at how cold she felt.

"I think she fell in the ocean," Ty said. Luke would have looked more confused, would have asked so many questions because _the ocean? How?_ But Julie was right there and she was freezing.

"We need to get her warm, now," Flynn said and they both ran back upstairs where the others were waiting. "Grab a hairdryer," she said and they all hurried to find one, while she and Luke ran to Julie's room.

Luke let Julie on her bed and moved to her closet to grab some dry clothes. Flynn pulled her in a seating position taking off what she was wearing. "Jules, baby, you're with us?" she asked her, but all she got back was a quiet whimper. Luke threw the warmest pieces of clothing he could find in Julie's closet and moved on to grab a magenta hoodie from the chair near the bed that technically belonged to him, but Julie had stolen it more than a few times until she 'forgot' to give it back again. Not that Luke minded, Julie could have his whole closet as far as he was concerned.

Carrie rushed in with the hairdryer, plugged it in and drying Julie's hair. Reggie and Alex came in a few seconds later holding blankets and as soon as Julie's hair wasn't wet, Flynn pushed her back on the bed softly, pulling the covers over her and Luke brought the rest of the blankets, throwing them over her as well. He faintly heard Reggie on the background saying something about the car and a crash? and then Flynn was looking at him and he was nodding for her to go.

"It's okay, I'll stay," he reassured her.

They all rushed back out, leaving them alone. Julie hadn't given out any sign that she was aware of what was happening around her, buried under a pile of blankets and still shivering. Luke moved around and slipped underneath the covers beside her, wrapping his arms around her and bringing her close. He moved one of his hands rubbing over her back, touching her skin in hopes that the body heat was going to make things better. He tucked her head underneath his and felt her sigh as she leaned into his neck.

"You're gonna be okay," he whispered, kissing her head. He couldn't understand what had happened and right now he didn't really care, all he wanted was for Julie to be okay.

She was still shaking in his grasp, even if it was becoming less intense as the time went by. He quietly started humming _Edge of Great,_ his other hand going through her hair. It took a while, but eventually she stopped shivering. She was still cold, curling up against Luke trying to soak up as much warmth as she could when eventually her breathing evened out, falling asleep.

Luke didn't let her go all through the night.

* * *

When Luke woke up the next morning, Julie was stil asleep. Her temperature had thankfully gone back to normal and she wasn't shaking anymore, but Luke still felt the need to hold her close so she could feel better.

He moved one of his hands closer, brushing a few curls away from her face. Julie stirred a bit against him until she blinked her eyes open.

"Hey," Luke said with a smile.

Julie smiled back. "Hi," she said, her voice hoarse and tired. "I didn't..." She frowned as she tried to remember. "I didn't make it back here on my own, did I?"

"Ty and Kit found you on the side of the road," he said.

"Oh," she said pleasantly surprised, making Luke even more confused. "I consider that a success."

"What exactly happened last night?" Luke asked.

Julie sighed, snuggling in closer. "I started driving back, the roads were empty and I was practically almost right outside when something hit the dashboard out of nowhere," she said. "Didn't think I'd come up against a demon in the pouring rain, but you know, weirder things have happened. I'm sorry about the food."

"Julie, nobody cared about the food."

"You should, it smelled great," she said. "Anyway, the car was crashed, I went after it which led me to the ocean and I was pushed in just as I killed it. It was not fun. But I did make it to the side of the road which is incredible really."

"Flynn realized there was something wrong, but the guys brought you in before we could come out," Luke said. "God, I was terrified, Jules," he added, instinctively wrapping his arms around her tighter.

"I'm okay," Julie said, looking up at him again. "And I really appreciate this cocoon you've made for me here." She gestured to the pile of blankets around her. "And the hoodie," she added with a smile waving the little too big sleeve for her around Luke's chest.

"Ah, I remember the good old days when it used to be mine..." he said with an overdramatic sigh.

"You can have it back," she said while wrapping it around her even tighter making Luke chuckle.

"What's mine is yours," he said, "you know how it goes, in sickness and in health, till death do us part... Stuff like that."

"What... wait. Wait, are those the mundane wedding vows?" Julie asked, pulling slightly back so she could really look at him.

"They are? I had no idea, it just came to me," he said with a smirk.

"You know, one day I'm gonna take this seriously and you'll actually have to marry me," she said.

"And it will be one of the happiest days of my life," Luke added, looking at her with a smile. He meant every word he said.

Julie leaned forward, kissing his cheek softly and resting her head back against his shoulder. "Mine too."

**(5)**

"Okay, so, she's in love with the vampire, right?" Reggie asked.

"Yes," Kayla answered.

"But she's also in love with the werewolf," he continued.

"No, the werewolf is in love with her," Alex said, "she wants the vampire."

Willie chuckled. "I love that you're invested."

"I don't like it, but I can't stop watching," Alex said, eating some more pop corn.

"But she kissed the werewolf!" Reggie said again, trying to make sense of the movie.

"Babe, don't think too much about it, just enjoy vampires and werewolves fighting one another until she gets pregnant with a vampire baby," Kayla said, looking up at Reggie from where her head was resting on his lap.

"I'm sorry, vampires can have babies?" Reggie looked at her with an incredulous expression.

"I mean, they sparkle under the sun, they might as well have some kids," Carrie said from her place on the floor with a shrug.

"You know, I used to be team Edward, but now I feel like that's an act of betrayal or something," Kayla said.

"I promise you won't be thrown out of the pack for not supporting Jacob," Willie said.

"Why are there teams, you said she didn't like the werewolf!" Reggie asked again exasperated.

"But some people wanted her to end up with the werewolf," Kayla tried to explain.

"But then the werewolf ended up with her kid, so it really wouldn't have worked out," Willie continued.

Reggie turned to look at him and even though Luke was pretty sure he'd missed a big part of the movie while texting with Julie, he still turned around as well. "What?" he asked, looking at him genuinely confused. Willie started off on a wild explanation about werewolves and vampires and true loves and how werewolves were immortal, but also these were not really werewolves and Luke was starting to get a headache so he tuned most of it out.

Julie and Flynn had gone back to New York for a couple of days, visiting Julie's family while everyone else was having a movie night over at Willie's. Carrie would glance over from her phone every once in a while and throw in some quip, somehow still understanding what was going on, Luke was confused, but not as invested in the movie to actually look into it, Alex was invested, but was apparently following everything and Reggie was seconds away from exploding because things didn't make sense to him. All in all they were having fun.

It'd been eight months since the girls had moved in with them and everything had moved into a routine. A good routine. It felt like it'd always been that way and Luke caught himself wondering how they'd been living their lives before they had actually come along. Missions and demons came and went and they had also managed to keep the band alive which was a dream come true for Luke and their songs were amazing and their sound was amazing and maybe they didn't have as many chances to evolve it into something more, but they at least had it. And Luke was really just living the dream.

They stayed over at Willie's for two more movies where the girl married the vampire and then actually did have a baby with him and also became a vampire (?) and some other stuff happened but in the end everyone was happy - except for Reggie who had a lot of thoughs to share which Kayla and Carrie - who even though wasn't paying full attention she somehow knew every little detail - were trying to help him figure out. Alex and Willie had gathered the empty pizza boxes and other trash and glasses from the table and were currently disposing of everything in the kitchen.

They suddenly heard a crash from inside, like a glass breaking.

"You okay?" Luke called out.

There was silence for a couple of seconds until Alex answered. "Uh, yeah, fine, everything's fine." It didn't exactly sound genuine, but he was with Willie so Luke didn't question it.

Soon enought they were getting ready to leave and Luke was surprised to see that Alex followed. He would spend a lot of days throughout the week sleeping over at Willie's and it was already 1:30 am and, well, they were actually _there_ , it really made no sense for him to come back. He didn't say anything figuring if something had happened Alex would eventually tell them.

They arrived back in the Institute, everyone going to sleep except for Luke of course who camped in one of the couches in the common room. He'd been struggling with some lyrics for the past week and was really hoping he could work the song out. Apparently though he was way more tired than he thought and didn't have Julie there to bounce ideas off of each other, so without even realizing it, he fell asleep, his notebook falling closed beside him on the couch.

* * *

He wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he distantly felt someone slowly taking the pen away from his hand and gathering the notebook from the side of his head. Before he could get his head to work properly, someone pulled a blanket over him making him curl under it and bring it closer. He worked through the haze in his head, blinking his eyes open to see who was there - even though it really wasn't that hard to guess.

He opened his eyes only to be met with dimmer lights than how he'd left them, but he could still spot Alex frowning.

"I'm sorry," he whispered, "go back to sleep."

"What time is it?" Luke murmured.

"Four," Alex answered.

"Why are you awake?" Luke asked confused, turning around slightly with a yawn.

"It's nothing, just working through something," Alex said dismissively.

"What?" Luke asked.

Alex sighed from his spot, but eventually relented and moved to sit right next to Luke's head on the couch. Luke, suddenly slightly more awake than before, scooted forward, laying his head on Alex's lap and looking up at him. Alex didn't really seem eager to talk, obviously still thinking things out in his head. His hand started going through Luke's hair, not for Luke to go back to sleep, but mainly for Alex to have something to focus on.

"You remember that glass I dropped in the kitchen?" he asked.

Luke assumed that was the crashing sound he'd heard earlier in Willie's apartment. "Yeah," he said confused when a thought passed his mind and he suddenly felt way too sobered up. "Wait, you didn't break up, did you?"

"What?" Alex looked down at him surprised. "No, why would you think that?" he asked amused.

"I don't know... You're awake at 4 am, you're anxious about something, you came back to the Institute... You usually stay over at Willie's when we're already there," Luke said.

"Hmm, yeah no, I can see that, it makes sense," Alex said. "No, uh... Kind of the opposite?"

"You're getting married?"

"No! What is it with you and marriage?"

"I don't know, what's the opposite of breaking up?" Luke asked, feeling his question was completely justified.

"He asked me to move in with him," he said.

"Oh," Luke said, somehow more surprised than Alex telling him he was getting married. "Isn't that good?"

"I... I mean it is, it definitely is and if you really think about it there's not much of a difference because like yeah I can sleep over there, but I'll be here all through the day because we still are Shadowhunters and we have a job to do and I guess sometimes I'm still gonna crash here too, so it's not like I'm gonna leave and not see you again or anything-"

"Alex," Luke cut him off. "Ouch."

Alex looked down at him only to realize he'd been tugging at Luke's hair harder and harder the more he spiraled. "Sorry," he said and let go.

"You know, you already stay over like five times a week, it's not gonna be such a big change or anything..." Luke said. "Unless you don't want to."

"No, no, I want to, I do, it's just..." he hesitated. "What about everyone else?"

"I don't think anyone else gets a say in this. You either want to or you don't."

"It's not that, I mean what about all of you? I don't... I don't want to just leave you."

"You're not leaving us, Alex, you're doing something that makes you happy. And we'll be happy for you. And I mean either way you'll be here all the time, you kind of have to," he added making them both chuckle.

"I want to, Luke, I really do," Alex said, "but I've been staying here for the past four years. Longer than that if we're being honest. And it's not even that big of a change, I mean I'll still be here all the time, but still. It feels like a huge change."

"It is," Luke agreed, "but not all changes are bad. Let me ask you this, if we weren't in the picture what would you say?"

"Yes," Alex said immediately, "three hours ago when he asked me. I mean it's true, I already stay there all the time, it's not gonna change much. But there are still things that _are_ going to change. Days off and impromptu music sessions at 3 am and I'm not gonna be here to make breakfast that's for sure..."

Luke laughed. "Dude, we're in a band together, the music's not just going to stop. And just to help you out here, you're not going to lose any of us if you move out, okay? It doesn't change anything. And if we miss you, you're literally twenty minutes away."

Alex stayed silent, contemplating everything. "When did you become so wise?" he asked with a smile.

Luke smiled back. "I'm happy for you, really."

"Thank you," Alex said and Luke could actually see him visibly relaxing. He wanted this, of course he wanted this, how could they not be happy for him?

No one talked for a couple of minutes, Alex probably thinking about how he was going to break the news to everyone and Willie, while Luke was just starting to get sleepy again. Damn Alex for fixing his sleep schedule and introducing him to a healthier lifestyle.

"Do you ever..." Luke started to say, but stopped himself. He wasn't sure where the thought had come from, maybe all the talk about change and familiarity...

"What?" Alex asked.

"Just... I don't regret anything, really, but do you ever think about how things would be if we had gone through with the parabatai ritual?" Luke asked.

"Luke, we made out. A lot," Alex said making him laugh. "Not exactly parabatai material."

"Yeah, no, that's a good point. You think maybe we were forcing it? Even when there was all four of us together?"

"I mean, sometimes, kinda. It just made sense to divide two and two, right? It's not like it was a bad thing, but I don't know... It's not something I miss, I've never lied about that. I almost feel like I got it anyway," he added with a faint smile.

Yeah, he wasn't wrong about that. "If you keep breaking your right arm, I'm never speaking to you again."

"Oh God, I could use the peace and quiet."

"Just so you know, I'm tired and not moving from here," Luke said.

"Just so you know, I don't care," Alex said.

"Good, goodnight," Luke said and closed his eyes with a yawn.

He heard Alex breathe a laugh. "Goodnight, Luke."

* * *

"Alex is bringing up the last box," Julie said as she left the box she was holding on the floor.

"Okay, question, where did Alex even get all this stuff? Did he always have that much stuff?" Reggie asked from the couch. "Also, why doesn't this building have an elevator?"

"Reg, you're a Shadowhunter," Luke said.

"A tired Shadowhunter," Reggie said.

"Here it is," Alex said coming up the stairs holding the official last box.

"They grow up so fast," Luke said, wiping an imaginary tear away as he leaned into Julie.

"No, but like, it's true, because one week ago I was visiting my dad and now Alex is leaving the nest, it's truly moving," Julie agreed.

"I hate you both," Alex said making them burst out laughing.

"Alex, why do I keep finding more daggers inside the apartment?" Willie said coming from the kitchen.

Alex looked at the dagger Willie was holding. "Top cupboard?" he asked.

"No, under the sink- there are more?" he asked incredulously.

"One day we are going to get attacked and you'll thank me."

"I don't even know how to use these," Willie said. "It's okay, I'm gonna keep using them as cutlery, we'll be fine." He waved the dagger dismissively, grabbing one of the boxes and moving it inside the bedroom.

"Look at that, our friends are growing up, moving on..." Luke said, looking at Julie with a smile.

Julie chuckled and turned to look at him with a smile. "It's been four months, I was getting worried."

"Four months?" Luke asked confused.

"Since you last mentioned a marriage proposal," she said.

"I wasn't gonna say that..." Luke tried to defend himself, but Julie looked at him with a raised eyebrow and well, he knew she wouldn't believe any of his excuses. "Okay, I was, but you can't blame me. Things are changing."

"Let's just enjoy each group milestone separately," she said.

Luke leaned in and kissed her cheek. "One day you're gonna say yes."

"I know," Julie agreed, making him grin.

**(+1)**

Everyone dragged themselves inside the Institute without a single word. They separated, everyone moving to either take a shower or just simply change clothes. Julie was so tired, she almost fell asleep in the shower, but she quickly turned the water to cold so she could wake up even a little bit.

She wrapped herself in fluffy towel when she got out, putting her pyjamas on and heading back to her room. Luke was already lying on the bed, seemingly asleep. It wasn't like she could blame him, they'd been killing demons non-stop for two days now, but Fuego along with some of the other warlocks had found the rift they were coming from and sealed it. They should go back to normal from now on.

She sat down on the bed, trying not to wake him up. Then again after four years of knowing each other, Julie could confidently say that their sleeping schedule had never looked better. Maybe balance was a big word to throw out like that, but she felt like they'd managed to work things out. Also Alex may have moved out two years ago, but he seemed to have a sixth sense for when Luke and Julie would be overdoing it with lyrics and melodies.

She lied down - her body finally thanking her that she was resting - and looked at Luke's sleeping face. He seemed so peaceful and comfortable as if there was no other place he'd rather be in the world. And maybe that was true. Luke always looked contented to be with her no matter what. They could be sleeping in her room, writing music in the music room or fighting demons on the street and Luke always looked like he wouldn't change it for the world.

Julie could understand that, it was exactly how she felt when they were around each other. The others liked to joke that the world disappeared when they looked or talked with each other, and Julie really didn't want to be cheesy, but she couldn't help it if it was the truth. Luke was bright and he was vibrant and she gravitated closer to him wherever they were without even realizing it because everything just felt better when they were together.

She loved him so much and Luke loved her so much and really, there was nothing she wouldn't do for him. She'd been thinking about it these past few days... How Luke meant so much to her, how she never wanted to let him go...

She moved her hand, softly pushing away a few strands of hair that'd fallen on Luke's face. He stirred slightly, blinking up blearily to look at her.

"Hey," she whispered. The corner of Luke's mouth twitched into a smile as he leaned in closer, burying his face in her neck. Julie wrapped her arms around him, suddenly feeling an overwhelming love for him and she couldn't stop herself before the words tumbled out of her mouth. "I do want to marry you."

Maybe she didn't really want to stop herself anyway.

"Me too," Luke mumbled against her neck, without moving any more. That was enough for Julie to know how out of it he really was because regular Luke would have jumped off the bed by now. 

She smiled down at him, hearing his breaths even out again. She closed her eyes too, feeling herself completely relax against him. They could try that again tomorrow.

* * *

When Julie opened her eyes the next morning, she found Luke already awake beside her.

"Good morning," she whispered, her voice still hoarse from sleep. Luke didn't answer, looking at her confused. "What's wrong?" she asked.

Luke kept looking at her as if he would find the answer written on her face. "Luke? You're with me?" she asked him.

"Julie, did- you did- okay, no, but like, did you?" Luke stumbled over his words trying to make sense and failing.

"Am I still drowsy from sleep or are you just not making any sense?"

"You said something last night. I didn't imagine all of that, did I? It wasn't a dream?" he said again.

Julie grinned, realizing what was going on. "What did you hear?" she asked.

Luke squinted his eyes at her. "You're messing with me," he said with a pout that just worked to make him look cute.

"Hey, Luke?" she said, still grinning. Luke focused his attention back to her, waiting for her to continue. "You wanna get married?"

Luke's breath hitched in his throat, his eyes widening. He didn't say anything for a few seconds and Julie was starting to believe she'd broken him or something when he suddenly said, "I did hear you right."

"It would seem so, yeah," she said. "But you know, if you don't think you're ready yet or-"

"What?" Luke shouted and sat up. "You think I'm not-" he was about to go into a whole rant, but he took in Julie's amused expression and stopped. "You're messing with me," he said.

"A little, yeah," she said with a chuckle.

Luke leaned down and kissed her hard, momentarily taking her breath away. "Yes," he said, pulling slightly back.

"Yes?" Julie asked with a smile, somehow a little surprised even though she'd already known his answer.

"Yes, Julie, of course yes." He kissed her again, this time slower than before. Julie wrapped her arms around his neck, bringing him closer, kissing him back. "I'm so happy right now," he said, a smile taking over his face that was once again enough to light up the whole room.

"Join the club," Julie said.

"Did this really just happen?" he asked quietly.

"Yeah," Julie said with a nod, looking up at him as if he was the most precious person in the world. As if it was just the two of them, the whole world disappearing around them when they were together. Well, everyone did say their chemistry was off the charts, when they were singing, creating or just existing together. Who were they to argue with that?


End file.
